States in the northeast U.S. are expected to experience the country’s first major heatwave of 2022 this weekend, with temperatures cresting well over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius).
As spring begins to wind down and summer begins, the National Weather Service warned on Thursday of incoming heat affecting nineteen states across the U.S. along with Washington D.C beginning today. The Midwest experienced high temperatures earlier this week, while parts of Texas also saw temperatures as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius). The National Weather Service said this heat dome is expected to shift to the East Coast this weekend, with temperatures in this region reaching highs of 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 11 degrees Celsius) above average.
“Hot temperatures that have been plaguing the south-central U.S. will spread/shift northeastward through the weekend,” the National Weather Service said on Twitter. “Temperatures well into the 90s in the Northeast could be impactful/dangerous especially for sensitive groups.”
East Coast states that can expect to see high temperatures today include the Carolinas, the Virginias, Ohio and Pennsylvania, while New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and even Maine will feel the heat on Saturday. Temperatures in May around these parts are warm, but not usually this hot, and metropolitan areas are bracing for impact. A National Weather Service office in New Jersey has warned that this weekend’s temperatures could break monthly records for May, while New York City has issued the first May heat advisory in 16 years for Saturday, when temperatures could reach between 95 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit (35 to 37.8 degrees Celsius). Studies have found that heatwaves in urban areas are getting more and more deadly, as more people flock to cities and climate change supercharges hot temperatures.
Heat waves in the United States have been getting more frequent over the last several decades; thanks to climate change, heatwaves that once would have happened every fifty years now occur roughly once per decade. And it’s not just the U.S. seeing soaring temperatures this spring. Outside of the U.S., India sweltered under 118 degree F (47.7 degree C) temperatures last month, while Greece and Turkey, the Pacific Northwest, and even the Arctic Circle have seen unusually high ground temperatures recently.